Well, this is fun

Somehow, earlier this week, I managed to wrench a muscle in my right shoulder, near the bottom of the shoulder blade. It hurts. Lots. Bad part is, I have to work with it aching. Good part is, at least it works out over the course of the day, though it's kind of a pain to have it pop back up in the morning. As today is Samhain (Halloween to non-Pagans), you can bet my night at work is going to be a long one, due to all the people who will call in so they can take their kids out, or just stay home to pass out candy. And it's supposed to be below freezing tonight (currently barely in the 50s outside), so what's left of the garden will be freeze-killed tonight, and that will save me working on anything outside till early spring. All I need to do is finish harvesting any seeds off beans and radishes, and my garden year is over. The rest will go in the compost heap this weekend.

Hubby is off with the truck getting the exhaust repaired, since we both had really good checks this week after last week's overtime. It's in need of it, as the nimrods who last "fixed" the exhaust didn't bother welding the pipe properly, and simply rammed pieces together and used JB Weld on the seams. Really????? *shaking my head* How stupid can you GET???? And since he wants a glass pack put on the thing to boot, he is off to an exhaust appointment. Me, I'm heading back to bed for a nap without him banging around to disturb it, so I can get up again later for work. Lucky him, his birthday was yesterday and he put in weeks ago to have today off for his floating birthday holiday, so he has a free day with pay. Oh well, another few months, and it'll be my turn again to annoy everyone by taking every other Monday off all summer. Although next summer, I hope I don't get stomach flu like I did this time!

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Lordy, Lordy, look who's forty!!!!

Today's post is just a short shout out to my beloved husband of 4 1/2 years, Quentin. Today, October 30th, is his birthday. We already did a bit of celebrating at work. Coming back from my second half bathroom break, I went down his line on the way back to my station, and wished him a loud happy birthday so everybody could hear it, and blew him a bunch of two-handed kisses. Everybody on three lines (his and the one on either side) started yelling "Woooooooooo!!!!!!" and laughing and wishing him happy birthday. Then the whole department sang happy birthday to him and whooped it up for a couple of minutes as we are wont to do on a special day, to celebrate someone. So by the time we got off work, the back of his smock was soaked from all the people coming up and whacking him on the back and wishing him happy birthday. (I'm saying "happy birthday" a lot here, aren't I? Heehee.) But he got through second round in good spirits and for once, was able to leave work with a smile on his face, and I'm glad to have been a part of what put it there. Happy, happy birthday, my love. You are definitely the one I want to spend the rest of my life annoying, and I'm so glad to have you in my life. Even in our tough times, you are special and fill my heart with joy.

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So tired

Long day yesterday, and it's looking like a long day again today, and I feel like crap. But, I gotta work, and that sucks. I did get some writing done yesterday, and fixed most of the mess I made of the wing. I might get the darn thing done today so I can start on butterfly #3 tomorrow. At least the cats are all happy. The boys are their usual selves, and the girls are starting to settle in. You can tell Tink was a housecat before, as she has begun to meet me in the kitchen while I fix their food in the morning, and to also meet me as I move through the house so she can have me bend down and pet her and rub the base of her ears. Raffles is still hiding a lot, but has decided that inside is much better than outside with recent weather (thunderstorms and now cold weather). There is supposed to be a bit of a freeze Friday night, which will likely kill off the rest of the garden, such as it is. This is fine with me, as it's getting cool enough during the day that I don't want to be out there any more for a few months. I'm looking forward to getting some more things done this weekend, even if it's only two days, and not to the following two weekends, as it's pretty well set in stone that we'll have to work Saturdays for those weekends. I am not happy with that, but the money will be nice. Anyhow, time to get ready for work. Hugs, all!

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Aggravation

I'm really aggravated with myself today. I was working along on that back wing on the second butterfly yesterday before work, going gung ho and really cruising. Then I got to a part where I was supposed to be a certain number of stitches from the edge and I was short a stitch. So I start tracing back. All my stitches were perfectly in line with the pattern, barring one teensy problem when I got back to where I started. I had acidentally started one stitch too far to the left. Oh yeah, real smart. So I had to spend time sitting and picking all the work I'd done out so I could restart it. Crap, crap, crap. Today's stitching, and what I did last night before bed, is redoing what I already did. So annoying. I really want to cry now. But I can't, and I have to get ready for work and I'm not in the mood. It's a headache - more of a neck ache really. I really wish I could just stay home and write, as it's much more fun. I keep reminding myself that one of these days, it will happen, and go from there. At least one page a day of writing is better than no writing, and eventually things get done. Hugs, all! Have a great Tuesday!!

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Ouch. That is all.

My back is killing me today. Too long a week last week, too much to do yesterday crammed into one day, all combine to make for a very sore and tired body. And yet, I'll be going back to work today and dealing with that for eight or so hours again, just so I can repeat if for the rest of the week. Oh, joy. I'm so thrilled by all this. An aching body does not make for a happy time when you're on your feet all day at work.

But a lot got accomplished, especially in the way of housework. Now if I could just wake up. Mornings for me - my version of a morning anyhow - are not easy on me. I am old enough that I really need more sleep than I'm getting, and the more sleep thing isn't going to happen any time soon.

I'm grateful to have had time to work on my needlework some yesterday, though not as much as I would have liked. But, hey, it all works out little by little. Funny thing is, I was outside ripping up stuff in the garden for a bit yesterday, and harvesting some seeds off the radishes and beans, and I see stuff STILL growing that I left alone. The tomatoes, both the Arkansas Travelers and the one Large Cherry that grew, are simply covered with blossoms. This, despite the cherry being the one who got chomped ages ago by the weed whacker! And one of my ornamental gourds finally got a female flower on it. I'm not sure what kind - it's a tiny little round thing, and there are a couple of male blossoms in about the same state of bloom, so I might get one whole gourd, haha!

Anyhow, time to start getting ready for work, yay me. All I want to do is go back to bed till about noon tomorrow! But I can't. One, the money is needed. Two, I'm working on getting my points down so I can bid on a sit down job like manifester. That's very busy with all the paperwork and some walking around to stamp things, but it's a lot easier to deal with than my tenonitis is. Of course, writing and all as a career would be even better, lol. Most of my stuff is short stuff, well under 100 pages, so they are able to be sold for less than $3, and they not only promote well on the Kindle Select Program (which allows me to promote them for free up to five days a month), but also means more folks buy them when they are actually available for sale for real money. Homesteading, writing, needlework - these are my goals for life and they are coming along. So, off to work I go!!!

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Time to relax

My one day this week when I get to do "homesteady stuff" and relax a bit, instead of rushing around to do things and get ready for work and work. It's nice to be able to sleep in, relax, do chores that need doing and just generally spend time doing a whole lot of nothing. I've been busy doing some needlework and some writing, as well as the few chores that needed doing, and the day for me essentially is barely started. Mom is working on the lap quilt for my Aunt Liz, and it's funny that she is doing the same one I'm doing for her, without knowing that I'm doing it. She is also beginning to really be tired of green. That's why I did all the green first on the one I'm doing, so I could get to change up colors once in a while, instead of working with just the same five shades of green for who knew how long to do the butterfly names and all the vinework. I'm a little over halfway done on the second butterfly now that I'm into those, and it's going quickly, so I should have it done in another few days. Then I start number three of nine, and just keep on trucking. With limited time each day, it is not likely to make it for Christmas at this point, but I'm trying!

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Yay, it's Saturday

And I get to go to work today, instead of run errands and relax, because they posted for today! Whoopie! I'm so thrilled! NOT. I want my weekend, darn it. And while we get next weekend all off, the following two weekends, we have to work as well. So thrilling. And the best part of all is, nobody knows how late we'll be working tonight, if at all. We have heard that there are only going to be enough birds coming in for first shift for all of today, and that there are going to be a lot of them and we'll be there till 4AM. Either way, I'm going ready for bear, as the saying goes, and packing lunch just in case.

Progress on the kitty front. Smudge now is not growling so much at the girls, and Tinkerbell met me at the end of the hallway this morning to get petted at breakfast time. Raffles finally came out of hiding and sat in the kitchen door and screamed kitty imprecations at me while I was fixing the food. Bouncer. for some odd reason, preferred to snooze on the toilet. I had to actually pick him up and carry him to the food dishes. But everybody ate without fussing, so that's good.

Mom's lap quilt is still progressing. I've gotten the second butterfly half done. I doubt it will be done by Christmas, but it will get done and I know she'll love it. I'll have to root out batteries and take a few photos of it in progress soon. It's looking really nice, and while I'm enjoying working on it, I'll be glad when it's done and I can go back to concentrating on other things. Writing is coming along bit by bit, and so another little book will be out in a couple of months. This one is a bit bigger than what I've done so far, and I need to polish it more before I consider publishing it on Kindle. Plus there's the "antifreeze afghan" to work on, other projects to do, and my Amazon wishlist to restock, just so everybody knows what to get me for presents instead of gift cards or asking me what it is that I want for birthday, anniversary and Christmas. Or just because. Then I can tell folks, "Go to my Amazon wishlist, and get me anything off of there. I'll be happy." Seriously, I will. (Or an Amazon gift card, and then I'll get something off the list myself and be happy.)

Hubby's birthday is next week, and I still have no idea what to do for him. I can't get him a cake, because his teeth aren't that great and serious sweets like that give him major toothaches, but I am thinking of an album he wants from Little Big Town. Not my kind of country (I much prefer the older stuff), but it has a song on it he really likes, and so I may pick him up a copy for a present. Might have to take him to dinner next weekend as well, just because.

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I am NOT a morning person

Hubby knows this. Some days, he really irritates me, because he can open his eyes, get up and moving and be wide awake in about ten seconds. I'm more the "might be awake by lunch" type of person. So my concentration in the mornings, as soon as I'm up, is usually something fairly brainless, like writing, or email or something to that effect. Today is one of those days when I'm not getting much accomplished, because we got up, I fed the boys and he starts babbling like a brook. He KNOWS I'm going to get irritated and not be able to concentrate. So riddle me this, my friends. Why does he start asking me questions that I have no experience in (mechanical stuff) and can't even give a polite "I don't know" answer to? All I want to do is snap those three words, tacking on, "Now leave me ALONE" on the end. This does not start the day off well, especially considering that we got scheduled for work tomorrow as well. I love the idea of the paycheck with all the overtime on it, but not the idea of all the extra work to get it, lol. There's too much to do and not nearly enough time to do it all as it is. One of these days ... I keep telling myself that every day I get through is one day closer to the goals that have been set. But, Dear God, today is one of those days when I really wish they were here already.

I loved the time when I was off work for eighteen months. The money was tight, but I got to have a lot of fun doing the things I wanted to do and enjoyed. Housework so that the house was always sparkling, I made a hot meal every night, I got to read, do needlework, watch TV if I wanted, whatever tickled my fancy. Most of which involved not leaving the house other than a few errands prior to hubby heading to work. Those days were a real blessing, and we both miss them terribly. But in order to get where we need to be, we both need to work right now, while my writing builds up to a steady income. Plus there are a few other things I do to bring in a few bucks, but it's all nowhere near enough to quit yet. Plus we need to get to where we are buying a house we can afford easily on one paycheck. Trust me, it's not easy getting there. But this two-job thing has got to eventually stop. There's a small farmstead/market garden to get rocking, and it's impossible to deal with that well when you have to spend all your free time working. I want to spend more time writing, and doing needlework to sell, and writing up the patterns to sell, and instead, I have to go to work.

Don't get me wrong. I like my job quite a lot. The money's good, it's nice to get out of the house, and so forth. But I like being home a lot more. I like being able to keep up the house, and cook and all kinds of things like I mentioned. Plus, at my age and with "the change" upon me, I like the naps a lot. Life, I've found, is much better with lots of naps. Hugs all, I think I'll take a short one before I head to work.

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I'm tired

It's one of those days where I slept good but not enough. I'm pretty sure old age is getting to me badly. One of these days, I'll go to a doctor and tell them to install a permanent heplock in my arm so I can just mainline caffiene. Worst is, yesterday, work posted for us to work Saturday. It'll make a nice check next week, but it's going to make for a tough weekend with it being cut in half. Hence why, lately, I haven't been overly busy much nor very chatty. I'm just too tired. I'm back to bed till I HAVE to be up. Might help some with the tiredness this morning. We shall see.

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Hunger is a great motivator

Especially for the cats. Breakfast this morning for the furballs has been interesting so far. The girls were still hiding under and in the couch. Bouncer was waiting for me to come feed him, and Smudge was curled up on the foot of the bed, a bit scared of the girls and hungry, but not enough to go down to the liviing room and be near enough to them to eat. Bouncer could really care less. I put down the plate and he dove in, chowing down with his usual enthusiasm. The girls ... well, I got nothing out of Raffles for once. She's usually the most vocal about "Where's the food?" Tinkerbell came out after hissing and a growl at me. She's still not completely happy, but they are doing well. They did try to dig their way out through the bottom of the door and got nowhere, so the girls are a bit mad at me. However, after coming back down here, hubby went down towards the kitchen and came back with the announcement that the girls were out and eating. We've decided that if they want out whenever we leave, for the moment, we'll let them and just lure them back in with more food. This way, they'll get used to eating indoors and being indoors, without scaring them too horribly badly. On the other hand, if they keep on hiding in the couch all the time, it makes them all the easier to domesticate without having to worry about luring them in all the time.

There's so many projects ongoing. The lap quilt, which I am wondering about getting it done by Christmas, is coming along nicely, other than seeming to take forever and a day to stitch the top. The "antifreeze afghan" is just sitting until I get the lap quilt done for Mom. There is wood to cut, and the garden to clean up for the winter. Things may slow down some once the weather starts to turn and then does turn, but a homestead is always a busy place. There's never "nothing to do." Even if I take a day off, I can find plenty to do. Heck, even if the weather is too crappy outside to allow for outdoors chores, there's still housework that can be done to get all the really deep cleaning done, and get all the blasted dust bunnies and cobwebs out of the hard-to-reach corners. Someone at work told me at work recently that homesteading must be easy because, my goodness, I have all this free time and fresh air and sunshine. HA! I'd like to see them do all I do in a day and not fall apart at the end of it.

Just my morning stuff alone is enough to tire people out if they aren't used to it! So far, I've stacked some wood in the trailer, fed us, fed the cats, gotten ready for work, done this, and harvested the radish seed pods along with some veggies for a small salad to take with me for part of lunch. Also, doctors hubby's right thumb, because he got a booboo last night here at the house, so of course, now it's all stiff and sore. But he's gotta work with it for three shifts yet, counting tonight, before the weekend. He's really gonna hurt. And that's all not counting the few errands we have to get done on the way to work, plus work, plus coming home to fix and eat dinner, and who knows what else I will find to get done. Easy life? I can only wish. Sometimes, I envy my city-dwelling friends for how little they seem to have to do, and then I look around me at the trees, or up at all the stars I see in the night sky (and a small strip of the Milky Way gleaming faintly), and tell myself, "Nah, I'd be bored and miserable in the city. Never gonna work." Then smile and go back to whatever.

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Success! and musings

In the girls, anyhow. I've been getting them used to the idea of eating indoors by putting the plate down inside the door a few feet in the morning, and coaxing them in to get at least a few bites. Today, both finally got brave and came indoors, so I slowly closed the door behind them. They noticed it then and got scared, and are currently huddling together in the window by the couch. Both are used to being petted, so I stroked them quite a bit to help them settle down, which isn't doing a lot of good at the moment. We figure if they want back out when one of us leaves the house for something, or when we go to work, we'll put the plate or some kibble outside for them as well at that point. Mainly to ensure they get a good feed, because Bouncer decided their food smelled better than the plate I put down for the boys.That's probably because it has a bit of gravy from last night's dinner (chicken and mashed potatoes) on it, but the boys always have ready water and free-choice kibble, so if the girls decide to stay in, there will be plenty for them to eat and drink.

The only problem we're likely to have is litter training Raffles, as she's been an outdoors kitty her whole life. She's pretty scared right now, Tink not so much as she's been indoors before. It's just neither are used to it, so I petted to calm them, and sweet-talked a lot. Bouncer was calmly eating, so I talked to them about that, and how if they stay in, they'll not have to worry about weather or shelter or being hungry or anything again while they are with us. We do fur-ever homes for our furkids. You can't do anything less. You take on the responsibility of a pet, you absolutely HAVE to be willing to put that pet first, just like a human child. The girls may have been thrust upon us by someone who wasn't willing to do that, for whatever reason (I have to guess because Tink was pregnant), but we took on the responsibility of caring for them. That means getting them indoors if possible and out of the weather. It's getting chilly now, and it's only going to get colder.

But so far, no screaming and hollering from Bouncer or the girls. Smudge is too lazy to care today; he's still curled up on the end of the bed, half-snoozing. Woops, spoke too soon. Someone got irritated, and there was a small RAWR and a hiss, but other than a few mews from Raffles, that's all that I'm hearing. So I'm off to do my normal morning, and we'll see what happens later.

Addendum: The girls have apparently decided to eat while I was in the bedroom, and are now hiding under the couch if not in the underside of it. At least they are staying IN, even if they are scared. Better they are in and safe than out and scared, homeless, cold and hungry. It's pretty rough on a domestic cat to eat once a day, horking it down, because they don't know if or when they'll get another good meal. The difference in eating habits between them and the boys is drastic, because the boys will piece all day long. "Oh, I want a nibble, so I'll crunch a bit of kibble." The girls see their food in the morning and they eat the whole thing in just a few minutes. Once they settle in, they'll nosh more and choke it down ASAP much less.

And I've been thinking. Homesteading is about simplifying your life. How much more fun I've found it to be to hang out the clothes to dry rather than using a dryer, as an example. While it takes time to hang stuff up and take it down, at least while it's drying, I can hang out here and do other chores or whatever. How is a dryer a time-saving and labor-saving device, if I can't really do much else while it's going, because we have to go to the laundromat to use it? That takes at least three hours total between drive time, washing, and drying. I do laundry at home, I can do other things while it's drying. Washing's another story, as I don't have a washing machine, but use washtubs and wringers. But that still doesn't take as long as a washer. I can do a load (wash, wring, rinse, wring, rinse, wring) in ten minutes. Another ten to hang it up to dry. In the time it takes to do ONE load at the laundromat, I can wash and hang up at least EIGHTEEN loads. I only need to do two loads at home. So there's a lot of wasted time I can spend doing other chores, or relaxing, or whatever. Tell me again how laundry day is saving me time with automated machines? (Never mind the extra wear and tear on the clothes by using a machine.)

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Happy Monday

I guess it is, anyhow. It's breezy and chilly and I have to go back to work, which is the downside. The good news is, I woke up this side of a dirt nap, the girls are just about ready to come in on their own because it's so chilly and they do not like chilly at ALL, and I have that first butterfly finally complete (black, grey, and yellow), including the decorative backstitching. The second one is started (shades of brown). Heck, I even caught up my TV watching last night on Hulu. Okay, so I have to watch my shows a week late because SOMEbody around here hogs the TV to watch car shows and wrestling and reruns of "Walker, Texas Ranger," to the point that I'm heartily sick of that show. (He used to do the same thing with "House Hunters,"  until I banned it from the house.) My only problem is, it is morning, and I am not a morning person. I want to go back to bed till around three or four in the afternoon. I like nights. Homesteading does not allow for this, nor does a night shift job where you have to be there at a reasonable amount of time prior to clocking in, so that you can get a parking spot where you don't have to walk half a mile to the entry gate. I'll take a nap in the truck on the way to work, since we have to return the buddy's spare tire today, which means the truck gets driven and not the car. Hugs, all.

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It's a quiet day today

Not much is going on. There's laundry to put away from yesterday, the composting toilet to change out, dishes to do, trash to get together and burnt, and small things like that. But overall, it's a day of just sit and do pretty much nothing. This is fine with me, as I have too many days during the week of rush around because of work. I got a lot done on the lap quilt last night, so that there's very little left to do on the first butterfly. Of course, there are still eight more to go, so it's probably going to be a late present, lol. I wish I had more time to work on it, but duty calls with work. The girls waltzed in on their own this morning when I opened the door to feed them, though they won't stay in to eat yet. They have learned quite well where good food comes from, and don't let me forget them!! Hubby is off to the store again for a couple things he forgot yesterday because he was still really sick, so I have a little time to do chores without him underfoot.

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Weekends can be fun

Or they can be a pain in the butt. For once, I had a great day, despite disabilities. Today, it was hubby who was "disabled" by a bout of tummy flu early this morning, which wiped him out. It was he who had to ride through the store in an electric cart today, albeit slowly, so I could keep up on foot. But we made it through the day. In addition, we have the truck back. It wasn't the fuel pump, one of the sensors went out, and it was a cheap fix, but tricky to track down, as it's essentially one of the last things to check when it's not the fuel pump.

Writing and all is coming along great, and I have nearly one whole butterfly done on the lap quilt, with just the one hind wing and the backstitching for detail to deal with. Then there's eight more of the little darlings to do before finishing the quilt. I begin to wonder if it will be done by Christmas at this rate. And the girls came inside today for a few moments. Plate on the floor far enough inside the door that they had to come in to start eating, and they came in. Tink less reluctantly than Raffles, and Tink began chowing. Raffles finally came in, worrying all the way, but began eating. I was behind the door most of the time to let them feel safe coming in, and they ate well until the door started to close. They're not quite ready yet. I got it halfway shut before they bolted, so they finished breakfast outdoors.

All in all, it's been a good day, other than hubby is still recuperating, so he's currently taking a nap. I've got so much to get done that it's not funny, and only a couple days to do it in before it's back to work time. Busy time calls!

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Thank goodness for Friday

It's been a long, rough week physically. It's hard to work when you hurt all the time, and this week has had me hurting pretty bad all the time. Stress does not help pain levels when you have fibromyalgia. So it's been a struggle. But it's one more night, one more shift, and other than errands tomorrow, it's rest up all weekend for the next week of fun at the plant.

We checked yesterday and that trailer park has no openings, so that's good, because I really don't want to have to move. Yeah, there's a lot of advantages, but there's a lot of disadvantages as well, and I'd rather deal with the disadvantages right now. Mom's lap quilt is coming along nicely, and I have the first butterfly half done. I'm not sure I'll have it done in time for Christmas, as work does chew up a lot of what otherwise would be some serious stitching time, but it will get done eventually, even if it's late.

And the girls this morning are getting bolder and more trusting. Tink came all the way in the house and had a few bites, and even got petted a little. Raffles finally willingly put one paw in, before pulling back. So they're still getting fed outside, but they are slowly learning to come in and trust people. At least this people. I need to get things done and get a bit more sleep before pulling together for work. See you guys later!

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